Our Impact
Building Autonomy, Protecting the Environment, and Saving Energy
Momentum’s mission includes providing communities in all geographies autonomy over re-use of their natural resources including critical minerals, protecting the environment, and saving energy. Our platform process solution, built on the proprietary MSX technology, aims to generate attractive returns on investment in a smaller footprint and allows co-locating processing facilities near a community’s waste collection and/or processing facility.
Why is Impact
Essential?
The exponential growth expected in the use of lithium batteries for electric vehicles (EV) and energy storage will result in an enormous number of spent batteries that will need to be disposed of or recycled. Disposal of lithium batteries is a poor substitution to recycling due to the hazardous and valuable components found in the batteries.
It is estimated that in North America alone there will be more than 400,000 tons of end-of-life devices and battery waste that will need to be recycled by 2025. Combine that with an US Department of Energy estimate of less than 5% of lithium batteries being recycled – the world quickly needs a solution that is sustainable in addition to being profitable. That’s where we step in.
Impact on Natural
Resources Autonomy
Critical minerals and metals are naturally occurring and processed in a small group of countries. While global trading allows for availability of these minerals and metals worldwide there is a growing movement towards having access to them locally. To build a future where each community can control, to a meaningful extent, their own natural resource use and re-use, it is critical to provide them with a financially attractive autonomous solution. The MSX technology platform has the potential to provide this autonomy.
The MSX technology platform allows recovery of critical minerals and metals in your own “backyard.” If the waste is produced in your community our system’s modularity and co-location can provide you with an attractive option.
Impact on the Environment
The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal negotiated under the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) in 1988 established standards for the transboundary movement of hazardous waste, solid waste, and municipal incinerator ash, including notice to and written confirmation from the receiving country prior to export. The first restriction requires that exports of waste occur only under the following circumstances:
If the exporting country does not have sufficient disposal or recycling capacity;
If the exporting country does not have disposal and recycling facilities that can manage the waste in an environmentally sound manner; or
If the wastes are required as a raw material for recycling or recovery industries in the importing country
While this has not yet been clearly extended to EV battery waste, there are ongoing discussions on doing that soon. In addition, certain jurisdictions are discussing including a battery passport, clearly labeling the source of the battery, going forward. To prepare for this future, utilizing the MSX technology process platform to a co-located processing facility at the source of the community’s waste collection and processing would ensure adherence to the Basel Convention and preventing the shipment of hazardous materials across borders.
Impact on Energy Usage
Momentum’s Critical Minerals Processing Platform
circular economy